Disasters and the American State: How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and the Public Prepare for the Unexpected

by Patrick S. Roberts

Disasters and the American State offers a thesis about the trajectory of federal government involvement in preparing for disaster shaped by contingent events. Politicians and bureaucrats claim credit for the government's successes in preparing for and responding to disaster, and they are also blamed for failures outside of government's control. New interventions have created precedents and established organizations and administrative cultures that accumulated over time and produced a general trend in which citizens, politicians, and bureaucrats expect the government to provide more security from more kinds of disasters. The trend reached its peak when the Federal Emergency Management Agency adopted the idea of preparing for “all hazards” as its mantra. Despite the rhetoric, however, the federal government's increasingly bold claims and heightened public expectations are disproportionate to the ability of the federal government to prevent or reduce the damage caused by disaster.

Genres: Nonfiction

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Growing up along the hurricane-prone Texas gulf coast, Patrick S. Roberts, an associate professor in the Center for Public Administration and Policy in the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, developed an interest in how disaster and security organizations prepare for extreme events.

His new book, “Disasters and the American State: How Politicians, Bureaucrats and the Public Prepare for the Unexpected,” just released through the Cambridge University Press, explores the captivating history of the U.S. government’s growing role in dealing with crisis.

Roberts’ book provides the only single-volume history of the development of federal government disaster management in the United States. The contents range from the origins of the disaster state between 1789 and 1914 to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security between 1993 and 2003 and include details behind the rise of emergency management and the formation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“His analysis of the change from a government in transition — from responding to events to trying to manage them — is a tremendously important and path breaking contribution to a question that increasingly, and inevitably, demands the best thinking we can bring,” said Donald F. Kettl, dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

FourDesign, Virginia Tech's faculty-led, student run design agency created the information graphics included for the book. The resulting 17 figures chronicle the development of disaster relief in the United States and track the toll of the disasters themselves.

Patrick S. Roberts is the associate chair for the Center for Public Administration and Policy and the program director for the center’s Northern Virginia location in Alexandria, Va. He received his doctorate in government from the University of Virginia. He earned his master’s degree from Claremont Graduate University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Dallas. During 2010-11, he was the Ghaemian Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Heidelberg Center for American Studies in Germany. He has also worked as a reporter for the Associated Press.